Money; Power; Respect

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Money; power; respect. How many times have you heard these three terms, be it in business, sports or entertainment? The fact of the matter is that a lot of young men strive to be rich, powerful and respected, but fail to realize one golden rule: money can evaporate, respect is relative, but power is unflinching.

what is power?

Power is not in itself an absolute matter. Power is the ability to affect the behavior of other people. It can be a function of one's position or of one's personality. There are four forms of position and personal power.

position power

A professor has legitimate power by virtue of controlling your grade; a parent has the power of reward by dangling a carrot before a child's eyes; a judge has coercive power; and finally, a witness has information power because what he knows is valuable to others. As you can see, these forms of power derive from one's position.

Once you remove the person from the position, their power — or at least a large amount of it — goes with it. Admittedly, this person may still hold information power because of their experience, but their inability to exert the power makes them quite ineffectual, because, by definition, it is the act of exerting power that makes someone powerful.

personal power

Conversely, power can stem from one's personality. One can hold rational power by being a good debater; a specialist has expert power thanks to their knowledge; some people are simply well-liked because of their friendly manner and courteous personality, these people are said to hold referent power; and finally, some have power by virtue of their charisma .

Clearly, there are many forms of power. Ideally, one is powerful because their personality puts them in a position of power. In this case, one is a force to be reckoned with. Many leaders have lost their position of power because of their weak personalities; Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia being one example that comes to mind.

If you are reading this and feel that you have a strong enough personality, bear in mind that that in itself is not enough. After all, some may be tremendously charismatic, but their foolish ways hold them back in life. Others may be well-liked, but they are not respected. Ah yes, respect .